Due to the United States and European debt crises, Malaysia is adviced to keep monetary policies loose. As of last August, "Malaysian annual inflation touched a 27-month high at 3.5% in June, reinforcing expectations of a 25-basis point rate rise in September."
This article talks about how the GDP increase fell in the U.S but that does not mean that the economy is doing badly at all. There IS an increase and overall better numbers for most aspects in terms of the goals of macroeconomics but it is just at a slow pace. The economy fluctuates and even though the increase is "pitiful", it would just mean that the economy would most likely only increase more from here on. This is also linked to the rate of unemployment.
"Let's face it, the Great American Bread machine is expanding, but at a pretty sorry rate, and not nearly enough to bring the 8.3 percent unemployment rate into 7.0 percent territory."
"Yes, gross domestic product is expanding, but the unemployed are still trying to recover. This is why so few wish to call the current uncertainty-plagued growth an expansion."
This article talks about how inflation affects the economy and society. It mainly talks about how it affects unemployment. It later goes on to test the theory that (quote) "a short-term rise in unemployment can permanently damage an economy, by making it harder for those laid off to find work even when times recover". The government, however, is tackling the problem.
This article is about how the Venezuelan government intervenes with the economy by implementing price controls and other regulations. This forces Venezuela to depend more on imported goods and decrease the country's productivity level.
According to the article, there was in increase in the number of applicants filling for jobless benefits literally just last week! It has reached such a drastic level that it is the highest since two months ago.
Quote from article :"A large chunk of the industrial world has fallen into deep and long depressions characterised by persistent high unemployment". Basically the article talks about how unemployment impacts the AS and AD of an economy and its domino effects as well.
This article talks about how beer prices are rising and like the concept in oligopoly, the rest of the firms follow and vice versa.
"After South African Breweries bought Miller in 2002, it set out to take market share from Bud. Its bigger rival responded by slashing prices. The others were then forced to match."
"Hewlett-Packard (HP), the world's largest information technology company and an icon of U.S. business, announced that it intends to exit the personal computer industry, including the rapidly expanding smartphone and tablet segments"
AirAsia has monopoly on the route between Kuala Lumpur and Sandakan, as Malaysian Airlines subsidiary airline Firefly is no longer a competition between the two destinations.
"Wal-Mart's influence on the U.S. economy has reached levels not seen by a single company since the 19th-century rise of Standard Oil, economists and historians say"
To state that Wal-Mart is huge would be an understatement and in my perspective, it is the perfect example of economies of scale. The article is a bit lenthy though but the points are well explained.
"Poet, which currently produces 1.5 billion gallons a year of ethanol from corn, said its 1-year-old pilot plant has reduced the cost of making ethanol from corncobs to $2.35 a gallon from $4.13 by cutting capital costs and using an improved "cocktail" of enzymes" - (picked from the article)
The company also changed their source of fuel in order to produce a bigger amount of ethanol.
This article talks about how the rainy season in Malaysia has affected the roads in Johor Bahru (JB). The potholes raises the risk of accidents and contributes to noise pollution.
"There are already many of my friends poking fun that JB means (Jalan Berlubang)." ---- Jalan Berlubang is Malaysian for roads with holes!
This article talks about how negative externalities links to taxes and how it can affect a person. It compares taxing soda with other products like fuel, cigarettes etc. and how the government makes decisions on what to tax.
Quote the article: "Even as adults, we sometimes wish for parents to be looking over our shoulders and guiding us to the right decisions. The question is, do you trust the government enough to appoint it your guardian?"
This article talks about how the cost of heating homes are impacting the people of Cardiff - how it has affected their budget and how suppliers are still continuing to raise prices. Therefore, price control needed to be implemented so the situation goes back to being under control.
"People shouldn't have to choose between whether to eat or heat but many do."
Basically the government has been subsidizing essential items to help the public by using tax money. But they are also subsidizing Big Energy Producing Companies (IPP) who sell their electricity to TNB at a fixed rate which is very high. Why the government agreed to this is basically corruption meaning, they (the rich) can force the government (public money) to pay and pay. Now, the government is going broke so they want to charge the public by reducing the essential item's subsidies but they are NOT reducing the subsidies to the rich! The government says that there is an agreement and they cannot change it.
This particular article relates soda to alcohol and cigarettes whereby consumption of these goods are bad for health but even after numerous ways to decrease consumption, the determinant having the biggest impact on consumption was proven to be the price of sodas.
The article is mainly about the fuel oil price and it's relation with Malaysia's oil market. It questions the demand and supply aspect of the determinants of the price of oil and talks about suggestions through an indirect perspective.
Basically what this article is trying to convey is the issue of the unstable price of palm oil in Malaysia and how it affects and is affected by the economy. The decease in demand of palm oil due to high stock and a festive season ending is assumed to increase due to other festive seasons starting therefore predictably showing a recovery trend.